this was one of the best things we did for our marriage.

hear me out.

each night, Brett and I watch one episode of a show. and then every so often, we watch a movie.

and yeah, the time together is great.

but getting good popcorn is what really made us love this little ritual of ours.

do we do popcorn every night? no.

but when we get the itch to do some good popcorn, we always thank Past Haley and Past Brett for investing in some good popcorn supplies.

or, more accurately, we thank Santa, who had the brilliant idea to better our popcorn game and make our simple show watching ritual feel so much more special. both of which improved our marriage and our at-home dates in this season of tiny humans and early bedtimes. love that Santa guy.

here are our must-haves for the best popcorn.

Once a month, my list of monthly routines reminds me to give five veryyyy hardworking appliances some good TLC - and it takes less than half an hour total. A google search will tell you there are lots of ways to clean each of these, but below I’ve linked what I personally use and love.

A list of our gear! Things we use for our Outdoor Adventure Days - things we bring to the river, the lake, the state park, and everything in between.

Part of our Weekly Summer Rhythm is to go on an Outdoor Adventure every Saturday. So this list of gear is getting used lots and lots and lots.

We don’t bring all this to every single place - this is just a round-up of what we have!

After nap every day, we go outside. (We usually go outside sometime in the morning, but that outdoor time before dinner is a must.) KK needs that time to play outdoors - her mood is better, bedtime is easier, and our day is all around more enjoyable. It’s one of my favorite times of day!

It’s also beautifully flexible. Outdoor Time can be our driveway, our backyard, my parents’ backyard, a friend’s backyard, a neighborhood walk, a nearby playground, a beloved splash pad, a trip to the pool, whatever!

Here are some of our favorite things for our daily Outdoor Time.

It’s May and KK has one week left of preschool, which means I’m deep in the throes of preparing for summer. Here’s what I’m doing now to help Future Summer Haley.

I say schedule, but really it’s a rhythm. As I said in my “10 Things I Do to Help Future Summer Haley,” one of my favorite ways to take care of myself is to create both a daily - and a weekly! - rhythm for our current season. I crave that comfortable predictability, but it also ensures the things that are important to us are highly prioritized.

Here’s our daily - and weekly! - summer schedule/rhythm!

remember my Instagram post on how I Decided Once on alllllll our gifts?

(ps: it’s the best.)

by popular demand, here’s the three traditions (and gifts) we do for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.